Michigan State's Le'Veon Bell runs for a first down against Nebraska during second quarter action Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. / KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/DFP

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1) Yep, that was a terrible call. There’s no way around that. Darqueze Dennard never should have been called for interference on Kenny Bell.

He played with perfect technique, was turned toward the ball, did nothing illegal with his hands.

Nebraska should have been kicking a 37-yard field goal on the next play to tie MSU and send the game to overtime. Instead, Nebraska won two plays later.

And it’s hard for me to understand what the call was on Johnny Adams when Dennard appeared to ice the game with a 96-yard interception return for a touchdown. A replay of the play shows Adams delivering what appears to be a clean block to a Nebraska player.

Did he hit him too hard? Did the official think Adams was just trying to get a cheap shot in? There’s no telling.

But you know what? Bad calls happen. The fact that Nebraska made the key plays late, and MSU didn’t, should not be lost in the officiating.

2) The Spartans had various reactions to that officiating. Several players tweeted (then deleted) rips on the officials shortly after the game.

Pat Narduzzi tried but couldn’t quite contain his anger.

On the Adams personal foul: “I guess you’re not allowed to block on defense. You can only block on offense. Players play. Coaches coach. Officials try to officiate the best they can. I guess they saw it that way. From the booth, I didn’t see it that way.”

He also said the Dennard call “didn’t look good” and when asked a second time about it, said: “Go ask those guys (the officials), they might be in a trailer somewhere.”

Max Bullough and Anthony Rashad White wouldn’t go there, however, saying (correctly) that the defense has to play over things like that and get the job done. And Mark Dantonio said “you make the call” on the pass interference but also defended the officials.

“Everybody’s trying to do the very best they can do out there,” he said. “I don’t think anybody’s out for Michigan State, I don’t think anyone’s out for Nebraska. It’s an instinctive game and it’s instinctive for officials too.”

On the Adams penalty, Dantonio said: “I got an explanation on it, but I couldn't see (it) on the video, so I really can't comment on it. There were two flags thrown on it. I will say this. It's just a bad penalty to have, any way you cut it. There were too many unforced penalties on our end that hurt us in the game, I felt. And you can't have those. They're going to come back and get you.”

3) This game came down to MSU’s defense once again not being able to make the late stop. It happened against Ohio State. It happened against Iowa. It happened against Michigan.

And it happened against Nebraska, the best offense the Spartans will see all season. The Cornhuskers ran for 313 yards, the first opponent to exceed 300 on a Dantonio-coached MSU team.

You have to go back to Glen Mason and that Minnesota rushing attack, vs. John L. Smith and that Chris Smeland defense, in 2005 to find another team putting 300 on the Spartans.

It was impressive that Nebraska did this to MSU without Rex Burkhead (knee). But then, Ameer Abdullah is pretty, pretty good.

And Taylor Martinez is really, really good.

MSU held Martinez to 23 yards on 12 carries last season. He toted it 17 times for 205 yards and two touchdowns Saturday, looking extremely fast doing it.

That even allowed Narduzzi to take a shot at U-M’s Denard Robinson, for some reason.

4) Of course, I’m sure the Michigan camp was surly after this one as well. The Wolverines really needed the Spartans to win this game.

Nebraska wins the Legends Division if it can beat Penn State at home, Minnesota at home and Iowa on the road. I don’t see the Gophers and Hawkeyes putting up much of a challenge.

Penn State could be interesting next week. Of course, even if the Nittany Lions can get it done on the road, U-M will have to win out, finishing with a victory in Columbus to get to Indianapolis.

5) As for the Spartans, you can go ahead and stuff all those scenarios in a sock. Indy is out and a bowl game is no gimme.

MSU needs a week off physically, though I’m sure the Spartans won’t enjoy letting this play through their minds for the next two weeks.

Northwestern visits next, a similar kind of challenge for this defense. And the Wildcats could be right in that race depending on what happens next week.

That’s going to be a tough game for MSU to win. I’ll go out on a limb and say it’ll be a close one decided late in the fourth quarter.

If MSU wins that game, it will probably beat out Northwestern for the Gator Bowl. If it loses, it will have to win at Minnesota to make the postseason, and Texas and Arizona are more likely.

6) Second guessing, anyone? Dantonio said it was his call to all-out blitz on Nebraska’s two plays.

The first one forced an incompletion but Nebraska was ready for the second one. A timing pattern and Jamal Turner easily beat Mitchell White on the play.

By the way, White was in because Kurtis Drummond had just been knocked out with a shoulder injury – on a fourth-down tackle that looked like it might win the game for MSU.

So Drummond, RJ Williamson (ankle) and Jairus Jones (leg) all were standing on the sideline while White and Mylan Hicks filled out MSU’s nickel defensive backfield. That’s some serious attrition.

Offensively, Dantonio and Dan Roushar both said they thought about going for it on fourth-and-2 from the Nebraska 39. But the idea was to pin a team with no timeouts, 1:27 left and no chance to run the ball anymore.

I can’t say I would have played that last offensive drive any differently. You want to burn their timeouts and you’re actually running the ball effectively.

But then MSU had a low snap to Mike Sadler, who seemed to rush his punt into the end zone, and Nebraska got the yardage back on the first play of the drive with a 22-yard pass play. And then it’s much easier to second guess.

7) This game wasted an incredible all-around effort from Dennard. His first pick was an extremely difficult, over-the-shoulder play.

His second pick should have been a touchdown. And as already discussed, he also had the pass break-up that should have forced Nebraska to attempt a tying field goal.

It also wasted Le’Veon Bell’s best performance in weeks. He ran it 36 times for 188 yards and two touchdowns, showing more burst.

Roushar pointed out that MSU practiced with the same starting offensive lineman for the first time in seven weeks. That, combined with Bell’s effort, combined with a so-so Nebraska defense, created 238 yards on the ground for MSU.

8) The MSU passing game took a step backward, though. Andrew Maxwell was just 9 of 27 for 123 yards and a touchdown, against a Nebraska team that played a lot of man-to-man as usual.

The Spartans had some late drops, with Tony Lippett nearly making a great catch on a fade, and Dion Sims not quite able to hang on to a pass for a first down on the next play. In both cases, Maxwell made great passes.

The same was true of his 46-yard bomb to Lippett for a touchdown. The running game set up the play-action opportunity, and Maxwell had all day to make a perfect throw.

But those were the highlights. MSU also had many missed chances.

9) The Spartans are now 2-4 at home this season. That clinches a losing record at Spartan Stadium for the first time since 2006 – and just the 10th time overall.

This after 15 straight wins here entering the season. But the crowd definitely does not deserve any blame for this one. It was really good.

The official attendance was 73,522 but right around 70,000 were in the stands. And I’d say 65,000 of those were MSU fans.

There was way, way less red than I expected. And although the student section wasn’t full – let’s face it, it’s too big – it was much more full than during the Iowa game.

So why so little red after so much MSU fretting? When you consider that Nebraska fans took over Chicago two weeks ago and may be needing to shell out some bucks to go to Indy a few weeks from now, you figure they have to take a weekend off here and there.

10) MSU has lost four Big Ten games by a total of 10 points. That is the story of this season.

The story of the 2010 and 2011 seasons? That the Spartans won those games.

Things are setting up for MSU to learn from this season and turn those close losses into close wins in 2013. That’s what the Spartans did after a season full of gut busters in 2009.

MSU likely will be the prohibitive Legends Division favorite entering next season, for whatever preseason predictions are worth (not much in East Lansing this season).

But the Spartans need some kind of momentum entering the offseason, and a losing record and no bowl game will not provide it.

At some point, though, you wonder how much these guys can take.

Contact Joe Rexrode: 313-222-2625 or jrexrode@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joerexrode. Check out his MSU blog at freep.com/heyjoe.